[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 54 (Wednesday, April 30, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H2060]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PATHWAY FOR OUR CHILDREN'S FUTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from North Carolina [Mrs. Clayton] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mrs. CLAYTON. Mr. Speaker, today more than ever our children need us 
to stand up for them. As a parent and as a grandparent, I simply want 
to pave a path to the future for our young people. Unfortunately, there 
are those who want to keep them trapped in the past. There could be no 
more urgent time than this moment in history to make a difference for 
our children.
  Consider this. Every 5 hours, a child dies from abuse or neglect. 
There is a connection with the fact that every 32 seconds a baby is 
born into poverty. From the dawn of life to the dusk of life, from 
birth to early death, far too many of our children are behind when 
born, live wretched lives and die before they truly have a chance to 
live.
  We can stop this vicious, downward spiral. We can move our children 
from under the dark cloud of planning their funerals to the bright 
sunshine of planning their futures.
  That is why I am here, Mr. Speaker, to stand up for WIC, to stand up 
for the nutritional needs of our country's poorest women and children. 
This is a time when so many of our children are at their lowest and 
worst point, and we need to call upon our highest and best effort as a 
nation.
  During this Congress, there are those of us who have carried the 
commitment to children and we have been able to do so because we have 
fought for it. We carried our fight on a foundation of faith and belief 
that our fight for children was a fight for our Nation's future, and 
through this we have made some gains. The fight goes on.
  More than 2,600 babies will be born into poverty this day and each 
day. We want to make a pathway for our children's future. There are 
those who would want to keep them trapped in the past. We will win the 
fight because we dare to fight. That is why we are here, Mr. Speaker, 
to fight the majority that want to cut the heart of our WIC program, a 
program that nourished over 7.4 million women and children in the year 
1996; to fight the majority, as they have cut $38 billion out of the 
WIC supplemental, necessary funding for the one government program 
regarded by experts to be the single most successful social program run 
by the Federal Government.
  Over 180,000 hungry women and children will be dropped from the WIC 
program, which has proven to be a successful weapon against low birth 
weight, infant mortality, and childhood anemia. GAO stated in 1992, for 
each $1 invested in the prenatal portion of WIC, the Federal Government 
saves at least $3.50 in Medicaid, SSI, and other relevant Federal 
programs.
  I implore the Speaker to fully fund the WIC program at the 
administration requested level of $78 million and to give 180,000 
American women, infants, and children the nutritional help that they 
need. We need to move people out of poverty, not into poverty. The 
President has said we need a lean but not a mean Government. It should 
not mean cutting nutrition programs which are essential to the well-
being of millions of our citizens, people who in many instances cannot 
fend for themselves and need assistance for their basic existence. They 
are not asking for much, just a little substance to help them through 
the day, WIC and other nutritional programs, which in many cases 
provide the only food that many of our Nation's poor receive daily.
  We are all aware that poor nutrition breeds poor development in 
children. I come from a rural area, a very poor district. Making cuts 
in this nutritional program will certainly be adverse to my district 
and to many of my constituents. Let us stop picking on children. Let us 
stop picking on the poor. Let us make some cuts, surely, but let us 
make them to the people who can afford them, not to taking food out of 
the mouths of pregnant and nursing women, infants, and children.

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